if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." but, mike, what time is it right now? >> ordinarily it would be time for "morning joe" but actually it's now time for chuck todd and "the daily rundown." more than a website. that's what you'll hear from president obama today as his team tries again to put the tech trouble behind them and launch a major push again to get folks to sign up including an exclusive sitdown with msnbc. also this morning, as joe biden makes a swing across key country, we'll take a look at what's at stake for the u.s. with this asia visit. and new details this morning on the deadly commuter train wreck in new york. investigators say the train was going three times as fast as it should have been on that sharp curve. good morning from washington. it's tuesday, december 3rd,

2013. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. we have a lot going on as we do every day in december. so let's start with my first reads of the morning. and it's on health care again. after the soft relaunch of the health care website over the weekend, the white house now feels that it's in good enough shape to do what they wanted to do two months ago. start a public campaign for the health care law over law. president obama will kick-start the e effort with an event at the white house this afternoon. of course this comes nine weeks after the first rollout which was marked by glitches and crashes as well as repeated promises from the administration that things would get better. >> nobody's madder than me about the website is working as well as it should, which means it's going to get fixed. >> no one ever imagined the volume of issues and problems that we've had, and we must fix it. >> there is an enormous amount of work going on on a daily basis to make the necessary

fixes and to upgrade the site with the goal of making it fully functional for the vast majority of users by the end of this month. >> i am confident that by by the time we look back on this next year that people are going to say this is working well and it's helping a lot of people. >> after all that, the white house finally appears comfortable enough to say that the website is workable and workable enough to start promoting it. late yesterday it started with a tweet from healthcare.gov twitter account reporting that 750,000 people had visited the site on monday. while it wasn't perfect, it didn't crash, and right now that's good enough to get the sales campaign off the ground. when the president speaks today, you can expect him to turn to a theme we first heard back when they tried to do this the first time in october. >> let me remind everybody that the affordable care act is not just a website.

it's much more. >> remember, the president has been pushing the affordable care act for more than three years, as far back as the summer of 2010 touting early provisions of the law and of course he spent a good chunk of 2012 pitching it on campaign trail. it's critical that the administration fix the politics of this, at least to the point where it's manageable for democrats running in 2014. to do that, the white house will have a coordinated campaign to emphasize the different benefits of the affordable care act. between now and december 23rd, the last day you can sign up in order to get insurance by january 1st. as part of the effort, president obama will be sitting down for an exclusive interview with our own chris matthews on thursday, december 5th, part of the "hardball" college tour, live in american university. in addition to the president's efforts, you're going to hear senate democratic leaders urging members to go on offense by collecting stories of people who have benefited from the law overall.

then what the dnc will do, launching an effort they describe as a sustained campaign to promote the law. lit include a website to push back against republican criticism. for the gop, they're trying to be critical to convince people that fixing the website doesn't necessarily fix the law. >> people are going to find out their rates are going up, people who have insurance they like will be losing it. the individual market is pretty tiny compared to what's yet to come, and as that unfolds this thing will be an unmitigated political disaster for the president. >> political issues aside, many consumers will be able to draw their own conclusions about how well healthcare.gov is working. many problems apparently have been fixed but not all of them. at one point monday customers were told there was too much traffic on the site and they were given a link that they could use to try again later. at the time, just 35,000 users were on the site at one i mean. 15,000 less than the 50,000 people the site was supposed to

be able to handle at any given moment. another critical issue involves something called 834s, the enrollment data forms that are sent to insurers to let them know when new customers sign up. many forms had mistakes. the government said the problem has been repaired. >> the healthcare.gov team working with issuers determined that more than 80% of the 834 production errors were actually due to one bug that preprevented a social security number the from being included in the application. the lack of that number caused the system not to generate an 834. that bug has been fixed and is now working properly." >> although future customers won't deal with the same bugs, past enrollments could still be riddled with errors. "the washington post" reports as many as one-third of enrollment records may have incorrect information or may never have been passed to the insurers. so fixing those issues involving

reaching out to those people who have already signed up as well as comparing lists of enrollees with insurers. back in october, problems with healthcare.gov were so bad, consumer reports advised its readers to completely avoid the website for at least a month, saying "hopefully that will be long enough for its software vendors to clean up the mess they've made." nancy metcalf wrote that article. he is the the senior program editor for "consumer reports" and has been covering health care reform through the lens of the consumer. she joins me now. good morning. >> good morning. >> we talk a lot about the politics of this and i wanted to focus on how should consumers go about using the website now. so you in the noirs said stay away. now what are you saying? >> now we're saying it's time. first of all, if you want to buy insurance, that's in effect on january 1st, you have to do it pretty quickly. you only until december 23rd to enroll. so back end of the website problems with which consumers

can not do anything about, we'll hope those get fixed. what consumers need to focus on is how to enroll in the first place. and there's a big job ahead because a lot of people still really aren't clear how to go about it. >> walk people through it. step one. >> step one is to understand that applying for health insurance now is more like doing your income tax than going to the doctor. >> okay. >> what you need to gather is a lot of financial information. your last year's tax return. if you didn't have one, information about payroll, pay stubs, et cetera. >> and gather all this information before you go to healthcare.gov. >> yes. because you're going to need it to complete the application. the other wonderful piece of news that came out yesterday that no one seemed to notice is that for the very first time healthcare.gov has a shopping function, a browsing function. something it should have had from day one but it's now there and working. when you go on the home page, there's a little --

>> the little -- >> the little medallion on left, click on that, and you can enter some very simple information about yourself and see all of the plans available to you. >> without putting financial data, stuff in you may not want to. >> no financial data. it won't calculate whether or not you have a subsidy coming to you, but it will show you the plans available to you in your area with the premium for a person your age. you can even looking at the provider networks and drug lists, which is hugely important to people. it's terrific. i tried it. it was working yesterday through the busiest times smoop you tried it at noon. >> midafternoon at its peak. >> you have to have all this data and information. one of the things i understood in our preinterview with you, you said if you had tried to sign up in october, that you guys believe, you know what, just scrap it. start all over. don't assume they know anything.

>> yeah. some funky stuff was going on with creating an account. >> if you created an account in october, you're advising people, trash it. >> start over. we've heard from consumers who were stuck at that point and started over again. >> like a reboot. >> i understand now -- right, right. i understand now and i haven't verified this yet that there's eve an place once you get into the site where if you have an application that's been hung up, you can say get rid of it, start over again. >> and that's -- you would recommend doing that. use the old data. >> if you've been hung up for a long time, just forget it and start over again. >> what about this issue of this uncertainty? does the insurance company my right information? what does this mean? at what point, if you think you've signed up for insurance via healthcare.gov, should you be concerned whether or not that the insurance company has you covered?

>> this is a developing thing. we're still trying to sort this out. my guess is that if you haven't heard something within a week or so after you signed up, you mite want to put in a call to the insurance company. >> directly. forget healthcare.gov. go right to the insurance company. >> right. >> and hope that -- and at least find out whether they have your information and all that. >> paid your first month's premium by the time your insurance starts. >> healthcare.gov. you feel like it's a -- this new version of the site, something you guys are going to put your seal of approval on? >> people have no choice if they want to get a subsidy so, yeah. >> have no choice. all right. anyway, miss metcalf, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> up next, a rare moment of bipartisan agreement on capitol hill. we'll explain what it's about. members of congress are going to come together today to combat what some are calling an invisible threat, deadly homemade plastic guns. there's a law banning the undetectable weapons is about to expire. meanwhile, today, is the motor city about to get

restarted? decision day in detroit. the largest american city ever to seek bankruptcy protection. we'll find out its fate officially today. first today's politics planner. we told you what the president is doing. guess what? it's one of those days where hillary clinton gets an award from somebody. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® campbell's healthy request. on the table by not choosing the right medicare d plan. no one could have left this much money here. whoo-hoo-hoo! yet many seniors who compare medicare d plans realize they can save hundreds of dollars. cvs/pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses.

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the house is expected to do something today it rarely does -- pass something with a

big bipartisan vote. it has to do with a weapons ban that dates back 25 years set to expire. there's new technology complicating the debate on capitol hill, a group called wiki weapons developed a program that lets you develop guns with a 3d printer in your own home. these rb tested. the atf found the first one they printed exploded but the second gun fired eight rounds of live ammo. these printed guns are invisible to metal detectors and that's what makes them illegal. so the '88 undetectable firearms act forbids any firearm that doesn't set off an x-ray machine or metal detector. gun owners can insert a metal part into any plastic gun to make it legal. but the idea of 3d printing has touched off a new controversy over the old ban. the house could simply extend the old ban for another ten years but some gun control advocates say that doesn't go

far enough anymore. chuck schumer calls the house bill "better than nothing but not good enough. we absolutely must close the loophole that allows anyone to legally make a gun that could be rendered invisible to law enforcement." joining us today from capitol hill, covering today's expected vote, a couple things about it. it's big, it's bipartisan, but there aren't going to be any amendments to this in order to essentially it appears to avoid this issue of 3d printing. explain. >> reporter: right. so today is a tuesday and the house of representatives under parliamentary procedural rules, if you bring a bill under suspension, you're suspending the rules of debate, meaning that if someone wanted to put forward an amendment on this bill they're proikted from doing that. now, the flip side, chuck, in order to operate under these types of rule, you have to have a two-thirds majority in order to get it through the house of representatives. from those i talked to, they believe they'll get that because they think a lot of republicans will support this bill, saying we're for commonsense gun

control legislation, it doesn't infringe on people's rights or making sure existing law moves forward and you'll get enough democrat who is want to go right along and don't want to have to hear the ear of any gun lobby. interesting enough, this is one of these issue where is the far-right gun rights groups, not the nras, more conservative gun owners of america. >> yeah. >> they're opposed to this. and in a more sort of liberal gun control group saying this doesn't go far enough. that's going to be that sort of middle ground a lot of these folks like to live in. interestingly enough, once it goes through the house, when the senate gets back on december 9th, that's the day this ban actually expires so the house is saying take it or leave it. if you don't pass it in the senate, we have nothing and that's worse than anything at all. on the point you are making, though, about the plastic guns and how undetktable they are, chuck schumer from new york, he wants to make metal a strict component of any type of gun so that it can be traced and it has to be in the shape of a gun, the plastic. these 3d printers, congress is

not giving up the technology. they don't have a real adequate way of figuring out how to prohibit it. >> they're kicking the can, essentially, and punting this issue of dealing with technology advancements. >> right. the senate wanted to have a one-year extension of current law, but the republicans objected to that under the fears that -- >> ten-year? >> reporter: this is a ten year e extension of the current law. so they're doing this under the -- for ten years, republicans say hey, we're doing our job. democrats wanted the one-year extension to have a longer debate about this issue. but then the gun rights group said they're here to take away everything you've fought for before, sort of the idea that gains a lot of traction around capitol hill amongst conservative members. >> i tell people to subtract or add ten years. think about what has happened technology-wise and a the advancements in last ten years. to do this on a ten-year traunche without dealing with 3d printing seems to be technologically naive. >> there was no iphone ten years

ago, chuck todd, no twitter either. >> that's right monopoly no will russert to chuck todd. >> reporter: that's right. >> our toozdae ta bank is coming up. plus learning new details about the deadly derailment in new york, including just how fast the train was traveling before the crash. so now the focus is on what was the driver, the engineer doing minutes before rounding that curve. was he on his phone? they're confiscating his phone and looking at that today. in the last 40 years, how many u.s. from thes have visited okinawa, japan? first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shoutout.

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an update now on last weekend's deadly train wreck in new york. the train that crashed in the bronx sunday was going nearly three times the regular speed limit before it jumped the tracks. investigators say the train was going 82 miles an hour before it entered what was supposed to be a 30-mile-an-hour curve. the ntsb says there were no signs of brake failure. four people were killed. at least 11 people are still hospitalized. and seven are in intensive care. one has spinal cord injuries. the ntsb is investigating whether the driver caused the crash. it's not ruling out other possibilities yet. to investigate about the driver fault, they are looking at the engineer's cell phone to see if there were any texts, emails, calls, or anything like that that were taking place in the seconds or minutes before the train itself derailed. now for the tuesday edition of "the daily rundown" databank. we have a strange political matchup. a football fan quake and a report on some shaky scores.

we'll start with $18 billion. that's the amount the city of detroit is hoping a judge will approve today for getting rid of its debt. the figure is just pennies on the dollar of what detroit actually owes. creditors say the city didn't spend enough time negotiating before filing for bankruptcy. a disappointing number, 30. that's america's rank worldwide when it comes to math scores. new standardized test scores show 29 other countries had higher test scores than the united states when it came to math. 19 countries did better than the u.s. when it came to reading. this next number is making retailers happy. it's $2 billion. that's the number of dollars that was spent yesterday during cyber monday sales. a new record. a company that tracks 2,000 retailer websites says online sales were up 16% over last year, a record 18% of those sales came from mobile devices. next up, one or two. that's the magnitude that fans

registered on a sieismometer on century field last night. you're thinking the frozen wet tundra of century field. it's the seahawks stadium, and it's those noisy fans as they beat the saints. they whipped them 34-7. researchers say the fan noise was like the pop of a small earthquake every time the seahawks scored a touchdown. who knew it? seattle has the best team in the nfl. i eat my words. three. that's the total number of days you have left to vote for "time" magazine's person of the year poll. rand paul and chris christie are in the running but it's miley cyrus bringing the wrecking ball to the balloting. she's got 20% of the online vote. folks, if it's anybody other than pope francis, won't with all be shocked? how historically doesn't he fit what "time" magazine has done for nearly a century? up next, a deep zbooif the

pacific. the president has been planning a visit to asia for what feels like ages but it keeps getting postponed. now as vice president biden is in the middle of his week-long trip to the region, we'll talk with "the atlantic" steve clemons and dick lugar. need a spoon, dear? not anymore. what? my silverware isn't good enough for you? have -- have you seen it? yes, i have seen it, and it looks -- you gotta look better. ladies, breathe. cascade kitchen counselor here. it's not your silverware. it's likely your detergent. see, over time, cascade platinum's triple cleaning formula delivers brilliant shine finish gel can't beat. it even helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. find something, mother? no. [ counselor ] cascade platinum is cascade's best. ...with the adt after thanksgiving sale. now, get adt pulse for only $49 and give your family the gift

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realize they can save hundreds of dollars. cvs/pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses. talk to your cvs pharmacist, call, or go to cvs.com/compare to get your free, personalized plan comparison today. call, go online, or visit your local store today. in today's "deep dive," a growing territory yal dispute in the east china sea could jeopardize the u.s. plan to counterbalance the rise of china. vice president biden began a six-day trip to japan, china, and south korea, and did so in tokyo on monday in the midst of an increasingly tense standoff between the japanese and the chinese as new leaders in both countries are flexing their own muscles. at issue, as "the new york times" put it is a file of rocks. there are a group of islands called the senkaku islands in

japan and the daiu islands if you're in china. the islands are controlled by japan and the japanese plan to build a new army base there by 2016. but last week china announced a new air defense identification zone which includes the air space over the islands saying foreign airlines must now warn china of their flight plans before entering air space many the east china sea. now, remember, the china/japan rivalry goes back, oh, a thousand years? the japanese see this as a sign of chinese aggression and are furious. this morning in a news conference with japan's prime minister, vice president biden warned that beijing risks a potentially dangerous confrontation with japan and its allies, which, of course, means us. >> we, the united states, are deeply concerned by the attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the east china sea. this action has raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation.

>> anonymously, white house advisers have been more candid. one adviser told -- one adviser to president obama told "the new york times," "it's pretty clear this isn't really about the islands. it's about a desire of some in china to assert themselves that-in ways that until recently they didn't have the military capability to make real. they say it's in response to our efforts to contain them, but our analysis is that it's really their effort to push our presence further out into the pacific." but in the mixed messages and the hedging that have become typical of u.s. policy toward china, while the pentagon sent two b-52 bombers into the area a week ago without telling china as a little bit of a test, the faa advised american airlines to identify themselves before entering the air space. the japanese say that's kowtowing to china. the administration claims it simply is a safety precaution. and biden said today he will raise the air space issue with the chinese when he travels to beijing later tonight. he's now left to patch up the relationship with tokyo as well.

biden said this morning the u.s. is committed to, quote, rebalancing its policy, but u.s. allies in asia have growing questions about the administration's resolve and resources for this so-called pivot to asia. then secretary of state hillary clinton announced it four years ago. >> i don't think there's any doubt if there were when this administration began that the united states is back in asia. but i want to underscore that we are back to stay. >> this asia pivot was supposed to represent a turn toward the future after two costly politically unpopular wars and a forced preoccupation with the always unstable middle east. president claimed that under his watch the global center of gravity was shifting toward asia-pacific and that u.s. policy needed to change with it. >> after a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly in blood and treasure,

the united states is turning our attention to the vast potential of the asia-pacific region. our new focus on this region reflects a fundamental truth -- the united states has been and always will be a pacific nation. >> but the pivot has disappointed some critics from the outset who question whether the administration's main policy announcement that the pentagon would deploy 2,500 marines to darwin, australia, keep in mind, that's more than 3,500 miles away from beijing, was really a big policy shift that the white house had promised. this pivot was further set back when the president was cancelled to cancel a trip to asia during t government shutdown and had to send john kerry in his place. biden arrives in beijing tonight after meeting in tokyo. he last met with china's president in los angeles in 2012 where he cultivated a relaxed image, even taking in a lakers game. but it's become clear that je is

a more complicated party. i'm joined by msnbc contributor and the washington editor at large for "the atlantic," steve clemens, of course also founder of the american strategy program at the new america foundation. steve, i know we have a little bit of a satellite delay, so i'm going to get right to my first question. you're traveling with vice president biden. let's get right to this issue of a standoff. are the japanese satisfied? did vice president biden satisfy the japanese that the u.s. is sticking by them in this dispute with china over what "the times" calls a pile of rocks? >> well, at least that's what prime minister abe said. he said that he appreciated the strong support of the united states, it was reported by kyoto news from their bilateral that abe wanted an even closer meeting. but i would say given the feel of this, i think there was an expectation or a hope that joe biden might come with something that was harder than he issued

today and, you know, that he would draw a red line, if you will, over this air defense identification zone. and clearly joe biden is trying to send signals that -- to the chinese that it's a bad mistake to make this situation worse. don't expand these zones. let's stop and pause. but at the same time no one's demanding that china withdraw that zone either. >> did biden or anybody traveling with him address this sort of mixed message that the obama administration sent by, on one hand, having the pentagon do the unarmed b 52s flying right through the zone, not telling the chinese, essentially finger in the eye a little bit, but then at the same time the faa does something different? did biden explain this contradiction? >> it's been a huge and confusing story here, and joe bide en in his comments to the public did not address that.

privately, vary officials here have talked to us about it. and, you know, to be candid it's very confusing because what they're saying is the faa at a very low level is doing what it has always done, which is, you know, not necessarily just with regard to china but when these zones have appeared it's just to have commercial carriers, you know, notify those that have set up these zones. so they're skirting the notion that anything different is being done with regard to this china adiz. but the fact remains that, you know, usair carriers have been beginning to issue these flight plans to the chinese and the japanese airlines have not. and today prime minister abe said that he would not get in the way or, you know, certainly wouldn't condone any efforts to put commercial aircraft passengers in danger, which was a signal, we think, that he's finally acquiescing to the fact that the rules of the road for the u.s. or the faa is going to -- you know, that these u.s. airliners are going to give.

but it appeared to many in japan like this was appeasement to china of this new air defense identification zone. >> it's interesting. caroline kennedy, the new u.s. ambassador to japan, essentially the first days on the job and she's being thrown into sort of this diplomatic issue here and dispute, essentially, where the japanese obviously want the united states to stand by them in a way that right now it appears the u.s. isn't prepared to do. how is she handling this? >> well, we saw her a few times today, and we didn't hear her speak. they haven't put her out in any way making comments. she participated in a women's entrepreneurship program with vice president biden and also the new ambassador for global women's issues, kathy russell, with other women and, you know, trying to promote the notion of women in the workforce in japan. she was of course at the press conference today and greeted biden last night. remember, john roos, her predecessor, walked into a buzz saw with north korea when he first started.

he hadn't even been in japan before he came. so it may be tradition that ambassadors when they start out here have a really tough go with some incident in asia when they arrive. >> exactly. obviously, tonight the vice president heads to china, and there is this interesting personal relationship that's developed between biden and je. what is it that biden hopes to accomplish more than having a great personal rapport with the new chinese leader? >> remember, when he was clearly heir apparent, he was vice president of china and the administration at tom donilon's direction orchestrated a set of meetings or meeting in 2011 with vice president biden, and they just hit it off, to tell you the truth. and biden learned a lot and i think he helped set up the successful meeting with obama. i think administration has its hands full globally, john kerry in the middle east and with iran. you've got chuck hagel dealing with egypt and other places.

joe biden is the natural with je and i suspect in the array offal atlanta the obama administration has bide season going to basically be dealing with this region a lot more than we've seen. i think he's going to be the guy to try to talk sense to these different leaders, to try to get the south koreans to deal bet we are the japanese and to try to get both of them to interact in a more constructive way with china. there's a lot of resentment that's built up over thousands of years here culturally, but what joe biden is trying to bring a message is their prosperity regionally is on the line if they don't find a way to fundamentally begin working together. and he really -- if you see this guy and you commented on it before, he's such a natural politician and he goes right to the human core of these leaders. in asia, that's not an easy trick. so joe biden is pushing the human relationships and i suspect he'll be the guy to

manage shinn ping for some time. >> something you don't see normally, political skills. pete clemons traveling with vice president biden. thank you, sir. the white house insists the white house is not trying to contain china, just simply playing an historic role of peace keeper in the pacific. is that a role congress will embrace in a time of pentagon budget cuts, national security challenges in the middle east, and of course the national mood at home, which is increasingly suspicious of being overextended abroad? joining me now, somebody who's one of the wise men of washington, former republican senator richard lugar, former chairman of the foreign relations committee. good morning. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the pivot to asia here, specifically this dispute between japan and china. the japanese obviously want the u.s. to be more declare tiffi here in its public anger with china and biden is just not -- clearly is not sending that message. is that the right call? >> well, the fact that bide

season there, as you pointed out, is tremendously important. the president has to postpone his trip. and as far as the congress is concerned, the whole pivot, asia was never fully explained by the administration. quite apart from the american people. >> just sort of said it. hey, we're doing it. here's some troops. ? and om aircraft carrier and various shifts over the south china sea as it were. bide season getting down to the particulars. one thing that hasn't come up at least in the news accounts is is the trans-pacific partnership. >> this is this trade pact -- >> the tpp. >> a that the united states wants to establish with every single asian economy except china. >> tremendously important to japan and the united states. >> and japan's not necessarily been on board with this as much as all the other southeastern asian countries are. right. that's true. so even though the concentration has been on the senekaku island and so forth, the tpp really is the ball game as far as the

continuity of the relationship and quite apart from the fact that japan has interests certainly in south korea and vice versa where the vice president is headed. >> it's a tricky relationship. the japanese and south korea aren't exactly -- they're allies but scent cal of each other. >> not only that, but the south koreans feel they provided slave labor for the japanese, that they haven't been fully compensated. so they still want payment. the japanese settled that a long time ago. so the south korean prime minister in saying that, as a matter of fact, our problem with the japanese is much greater than that with china, that's any first trip should be to china, not to japan. >> that was a little bit of a snub as far as the japanese -- >> well, it was meant to be. getting back to japan, the fact is that other countries have set up, including the japanese and the south koreans, zones over which others should not be

flying. the chinese are say, well, now we've set up the zones. but the chinese zone is pretty comprehensive and it chriss koszs the other two. >> right. >> now all are looking to the united states. atz you pointed out already, the problem here is we have strategic problems. in other words, we have allies with japan. we're committed, really, to defend japan in the case of war. >> in a way sort of this tight -- like nato as far as the tightness of it. >> so when we sent two bombers, all disarmed, over the zone, this is very heartening to the japanese. so the americans are still there. now, the faa comes along, poor souls, they're not really dealing with the state department, the defense department. >> dealing with safety of private commercial airline. >> yeah. we don't want to take the shot in essence. >> right. >> and american passengers or others be shot down in the

process. the administration's got to sort of work out, but at the same time i think the vice president being there is the critical point. the united states cares. the vice president's a great diplomat. and he will do very well with china. >> you think he'll be able to de-escalate this a little bit? >> he may. even if he doesn't, he may have to come back. in order, this may be an ongoing conversation. >> clearly a portfolio. i want to go to europe here. you're particularly known as an expert on all things russia, the old soviet union as well. this issue in the ukraine, and i apologize if folks haven't been following this too closely, but right now eventually ukraine is divided. the public seems dwilded over whether it should have economic ties with russia essentially or economic ties with the european uni union. where is this headed? is this like an old cold war spat where we're fighting over eastern -- you know, an important country and should the u.s. be playing more of a role here? because the u.s. has been very hands off in this dispute. >> well, there is a division.

it's not really clear to any of us what the division is. >> okay. >> the majority right now. but at the same time, the president of ukraine, because he has a lot of economic problems, pushed by vladimir putin and russia to sort of stick with russia. >> russia's done this in a strong-arm way with economic sanctions, almost forcing the ukraine to say you're not going with europe, you're going to come back with us. >> right. now, there are many people in the ukraine who want to ally with europe. they see the future, a much stronger one, both in terms of the economy and the politics. so as a result, this division was bound to cur. what was not expected i think were the rallies of so many people in ukraine out in the square, reminiscent of nine years ago, before the so-called rose rev lugts. >> this feeling where they wanted to be more part of the western europe and western world. >> yes, and they wanted democracy, wanted human rights freedom, so forth. they have a certain element of

that in ukraine now, but the ties with russia are rather ominous if that's the future. >> what should u.s. policy be on this? >> well, i think the united states really needs to lean in and be supportive of the people of ukraine in the sense that we would like for them to join. >> the eu. >> yes. >> and basically sever its ties or have more constructive economic ties with russia. >> that's the better place to put it, constructive. they'll have many types. and historically there are a lot of russians in ukraine. >> very quickly, the iran negotiation deal. is this deal better than nothing, or do you wish it was something different? where do you stand on this fragile deal with the iranians? >> i believe diplomacy ought to have a chance. i think that this particular opportunity we do have a chance to see whether iran is going to change materially in any way, that is come out to the rest of the world with us, with others, and so forth. it's a long shot.

but at the same time it should not be shot down. >> fair enough. good way to put it. senator lugar, the first time we've had you on the show since you got your medal of freedom. congratulations. some footage of that. what a tremendous event. >> for our whole family. >> all right. anyways, good to see you, sir. >> coming up, my tuesday take-away. republicans in a bit of a fix now or not? now that the health care website seems to be up and running, a reminder to mark your calendars. speaking of calendars, a reminder that at 7:00 p.m. on thursday, an msnbc exclusive, "hardball's" chris mathews will be interviewing the president on a college tour at american university. before we go to break, white house soup of the day. turkey lentil. if you're seeing spots before your eyes... it's time... for aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® has an active naturals total soy formula that instantly brightens skin.

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the soviet union, we can realize a lasting peace and transform the east-west relationship to one of enduring cooperation. >> daily flashback, it was this day in 1989 and it was the end of a summit between president george h.w. bush and soviet leader. following the leaders face-to-face meeting the president declared the u.s. and u.s.s.r. were on the threshold of a brand new era and of course we certainly were. trivia time, only one u.s. president has visited okinawa, japan, in the last 40 years and it was in 2000. president bill clinton became the first american president to visit the island since the u.s. returned okinawa to japan in 1972. no president has been there since. congratulations to today's winner, peter wesley. so send your trivia suggestions to dailyrundown@msnbc.com. we'll let fleetwood mac take us to break.

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time for my tuesday takeaway. with 750,000 visitors to the site yesterday without a crash and the obama administration now confident that the website is functioning, at least for consumers the way it was intended to, not necessarily yet for the health insurance companies, the republican repeal movement may actually now fizzle out completely. as dana milbank writes in "the washington post" opponents of the affordable care act may have lost what may have been their last chance to do away with the law. and that's the importance of the administration at least getting the website functioning. getting rid of the law in its entirety may still be talked about in some corners, but the push from the party at large to end so-called obama care is silently going away. in the past two weeks, there wasn't a single republican lawmaker who uttered the word "repeal" on a single sunday show. so with the law here to stay, the question now is how to

republicans run against it? we know some ways they'll try. don't be surprised if more republicans start talking up the need to fix this law but do so in a big way. the rhetoric may sound similar to some but the fact that repeal itself may be gone from the republican lexicon would be a significant shift. so do democrats become the party that tries to fix the law? keep an eye on this as different republicans perhaps test different messages on this front. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you right back here tomorrow. we've got a deep dive into an obsession among some, that's that's this whole bitcoin. it's a brain teaser. what the heck is it and why should you care about it? i'll explain tomorrow. coming up next, chris jansing. i'll see you later. losing thrusters. i need more power. give me more power! [ mainframe ] located. ge deep-sea fuel technology. a 50,000-pound, ingeniously wired machine

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to hear from house democrats and house republicans ahead of a very big day for the president. he's giving a speech touting the relaunch of obama care 2.0. a major decision on the detroit bankruptcy case. the judge will take the bench in just minutes. and protesters tackling two major issues, immigration and the minimum wage. how pressure from the people could finally change washington. good morning, i'm chris jansing. there's a major new push to focus positive attention on obama care, and it starts today. the kickoff is at the white house this afternoon. we'll hear from the president today, but the plan is to have a democrat or someone from the administration do something every single day until the december 23rd deadline. and just announced, this thursday the president will sit down with chris matthews at american university. the interview will air right here on msnbc's "hardball" at 7:00 p.m. eastern. again, that's thursday, december 5th. and it appears to be the right time for a